Fossil Record
Although there are fossils of mygalomorph spiders going back to the Triassic, only two specimens have been found so far which can be convincingly assigned to Theraphosidae. One is from Dominican Republic amber, the other from Chiapas (Mexican) amber. Both these ambers are quite young, being Miocene in age or about 16 million years old.
Read more about this topic: Tarantula
Famous quotes containing the words fossil and/or record:
“The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit,—not a fossil earth, but a living earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and vegetable life is merely parasitic.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The record of one’s life must needs prove more interesting to him who writes it than to him who reads what has been written.
“I have no name:
“I am but two days old.”
What shall I call thee?
“I happy am,
“Joy is my name.”
Sweet joy befall thee!”
—William Blake (1757–1827)